Focus: The Real Deal

Text: Ps.51:15

"O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise."

Christianity of self-effort will take no one anywhere. Self-righteousness is a product of the flesh. Performance-based Christianity is neither spiritually beneficial nor God-pleasing.

The psalmist captures the real deal about spirituality. He says, "O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise." God is the ground of genuine spirituality. He is the cause of real spiritual effects. Our mouth cannot really praise God until He touches or opens our mouths and causes us to heartily praise Him. 

God is behind our true profession of faith and praise. Nothing works until God makes it work. By faith, Abel made an acceptable offering to God, and by his offering he pleased God. But when it came to Cain, his offering was rejected by God because it was not prompted by faith. Faith and self-effort are poles apart. They are diametrically opposed to each other. Grace imparts us with a divine ability to please God and do His will. Cain lost out because he didn't come before God on the ground of faith. 

Faith functions by revealed truth. Faith presupposes a previous revelation, and it eliminates pride or corkiness. It comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. Faith obeys God and does what He says. God's word is a finality for faith, and by it faith lives and acts.

Paul says, "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1Cor.12:3). You can praise God by fleshly energy and for your own selfish reasons - to curry favors from God, or you can praise God by the prompting of God. 

It is by the Spirit that we are stirred up within us to say that Jesus Christ is Lord. Any form of spirituality that is not connected to or produced by the Spirit of God is mechanized or flesh-induced, and spirituality that is born of the flesh is tasteless and scentless to God.

Solomon writes, "Draw me, we will run after thee…" (Song of Sol.1:4). Spiritually speaking, we cannot draw close to God on our own or without divine prompting. Jesus Christ says, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (Jh.6:44). Until God pulls us, we make no moves toward Him. True spirituality is engineered and directed by God. 

It is also important to know that God can be nudging, wooing and pulling you to Himself, but you may choose to ignore or reject His overtures.

Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil.2:12,13). He calls upon us to work out our salvation on the premise that God is already working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We are only working out what God is already working into us, and that is the real deal about real Christianity and true spirituality. 

Hosea declares by prophetic inspiration, "And it shall come to pass in that day, I will HEAR, saith the LORD, I will HEAR the heavens, and they shall HEAR the earth; And the earth shall HEAR the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall HEAR Jezreel" (Hos.2:21,22). Nothing happens on earth until heaven has acted upon it. When God acts, heaven responds and the earth complies to the dictates of God. It's a supernatural chain reaction. God makes the heavens give rain to the earth, and the earth receives the rain, and by it yields the corn, the wine, and the oil, and the people of the earth would reap and enjoy the bountiful harvest of the earth. Spiritually speaking, that is the real deal. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

Let us join the psalmist to pray: "Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke" (Ps.144:5). Yes, the mountains only smoke when touched by God! Let God come down, and we shall have true revival! Our spirituality will come alive when God is in charge - when He is the shaker and mover of things. The real deal is to let God be God and to let the Spirit control every aspect of our walk with God, and to take charge of our walking and witnessing, worshipping and working, thinking and talking. That's the real deal concerning our faith-life.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter